Bureau A – Dezeenhttps://www.dezeen.com
architecture and design magazineFri, 09 Dec 2016 17:15:06 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1Inflatable black nightclub created by Bureau A for Federation of Swiss Architectshttps://www.dezeen.com/2016/09/26/shelter-inflatable-black-nightclub-bureau-a-federation-swiss-architects/
https://www.dezeen.com/2016/09/26/shelter-inflatable-black-nightclub-bureau-a-federation-swiss-architects/#commentsMon, 26 Sep 2016 11:20:46 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=978786Swiss studio Bureau A created this inflatable PVC nightclub to host the annual party of the Federation of Swiss Architects (+ slideshow). Named Shelter, the black blow-up building contains a bar and a dance floor, as well as an assortment of inflatable furniture that includes seating, tables and a DJ booth. Everything is made out of

]]>Swiss studio Bureau A created this inflatable PVC nightclub to host the annual party of the Federation of Swiss Architects (+ slideshow).

Named Shelter, the black blow-up building contains a bar and a dance floor, as well as an assortment of inflatable furniture that includes seating, tables and a DJ booth.

Everything is made out of black PVC membrane, meaning the lightweight structure can be easily deflated and transported to a new location.

The structure was commissioned by the Federation of Swiss Architects, better known as Bund Schweizer Architekten, to host the organisation's summer party. For this event, it was installed inside Pavillon Sicli – a cultural venue in Geneva.

Bureau A described the structure as a "mysterious black vessel in a highly engendered concrete vault".

"For one night, the black hole of a neat and well-organised society is revealed as a potential for distortion, a potential of let-go and provoke, with a slight smile, the unsaid and the sweat," they said.

With offices in both Geneva and Lisbon, architects Leopold Banchini and Daniel Zamarbide established Bureau A as an office for both architecture and research – with past projects ranging from a marble urinal to a mobile mini-skyscraper.

They see Shelter as a study of the architecture of the underground, as explored by theorists including Gaston Bachelard, Paul Virilio and Beatriz Colomina.

"Architecture seeks the underground, searches for new territories under the skin of the earth," said the team. "Bachelard woke up the right to the unconscious spatial exploration of the underground through the figure of the cellar."

"Virilio unveiled the potential of semi-buried architectures in his Bunker Archeology," they continued. "Colomina brought to light the hidden architectures and psychotic strategies of the American society during the Second World War in her book Domesticity at War."

"The underground fascinates and completes the hygienic and panoptical world of the overground."

]]>https://www.dezeen.com/2016/09/26/shelter-inflatable-black-nightclub-bureau-a-federation-swiss-architects/feed/10Bureau A recreates Stonehenge using shipping containershttps://www.dezeen.com/2015/11/03/bureau-a-steelhenge-stonehenge-shipping-containers-big-biennial-geneva/
https://www.dezeen.com/2015/11/03/bureau-a-steelhenge-stonehenge-shipping-containers-big-biennial-geneva/#commentsTue, 03 Nov 2015 09:55:55 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=793996Swiss architecture firm Bureau A has created Steelhenge: a recreation of the prehistoric English stone circle built from 50 shipping containers. For the first edition of the biennale for independent art spaces in Geneva, BIG, local firm Bureau A was commissioned to create an open air venue that would function as a space for attendees to

]]>Swiss architecture firm Bureau A has created Steelhenge: a recreation of the prehistoric English stone circle built from 50 shipping containers.

For the first edition of the biennale for independent art spaces in Geneva, BIG, local firm Bureau A was commissioned to create an open air venue that would function as a space for attendees to congregate.

Constructed using 50 blue shipping containers, the circular arrangement of Steelhenge is based on the concentric layout of Neolithic monument Stonehenge.

"We like to work with references, displacement or even direct quotes," Bureau A's Leopold Banchini told Dezeen.

"In this case, the ruins of Stonehenge and the pagan rituals that it evokes seemed like an interesting landscape relating to the disappearing alternative and squat culture in Geneva."

The steel containers were placed side by side to recreate the outer circle of monoliths. To echo the taller structures of the Wiltshire monument, pairs of containers have been stood on end to support horizontally-placed units.

]]>https://www.dezeen.com/2015/11/03/bureau-a-steelhenge-stonehenge-shipping-containers-big-biennial-geneva/feed/13Bureau A installs pink marble urinal at Zurich car parkhttps://www.dezeen.com/2015/08/18/bureau-a-fountain-2017-pink-marble-urinal-pissoir-zurich-car-park/
https://www.dezeen.com/2015/08/18/bureau-a-fountain-2017-pink-marble-urinal-pissoir-zurich-car-park/#commentsTue, 18 Aug 2015 19:00:25 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=753136Zurich citizens can now relieve themselves at a pink marble public pissoir, installed at an open-air car park by local architecture firm Bureau A (+ slideshow). Composed of pink Portuguese marble imported from Lisbon, the Fountain 2017 piece is one of three installations curated by Silvia Converso, Michele D'Ariano Simionato and Caterina Steiner as part

]]>Zurich citizens can now relieve themselves at a pink marble public pissoir, installed at an open-air car park by local architecture firm Bureau A (+ slideshow).

Composed of pink Portuguese marble imported from Lisbon, the Fountain 2017 piece is one of three installations curated by Silvia Converso, Michele D'Ariano Simionato and Caterina Steiner as part of the Common Ground art project.

The car park itself is situated on the remains of an ancient common, and the urinal was prompted by discussions around the area's historic role as a shared space.

"Public space needs to stay public, open and support debate and creative proposals of any kind, whether they are social, political or cultural," said the studio.

"A contribution where people can meet, be revolted to whatever, play, drink, sleep, love. Anything should be possible within a public space."

The Common Ground installations are hosted as part of the car park's ongoing Art Container project, which launched in June 2015 to commission and promote contemporary art in an independent and non-commercial exhibition space.

]]>https://www.dezeen.com/2015/08/18/bureau-a-fountain-2017-pink-marble-urinal-pissoir-zurich-car-park/feed/16Bureau A builds a model Soviet city inside L'asticot boutiquehttps://www.dezeen.com/2015/08/14/bureau-a-builds-model-soviet-city-inside-lasticot-boutique-geneva/
https://www.dezeen.com/2015/08/14/bureau-a-builds-model-soviet-city-inside-lasticot-boutique-geneva/#commentsFri, 14 Aug 2015 05:00:40 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=750580Swiss childrenswear brand L'asticot has collaborated with architecture firm Bureau A to install a miniature cardboard city at its Geneva store (+ slideshow). Bureau A was asked by child and baby clothes store L'asticot to create an environment that would reflect the creativity and playfulness of the brand. The studio responded by crafting an imaginary

]]>Swiss childrenswear brand L'asticot has collaborated with architecture firm Bureau A to install a miniature cardboard city at its Geneva store (+ slideshow).

Bureau A was asked by child and baby clothes store L'asticot to create an environment that would reflect the creativity and playfulness of the brand.

The studio responded by crafting an imaginary urban environment that takes cues from the architecture of the Soviet Union – examples of which were documented by photographer Rebecca Litchfield in her Soviet Ghosts series.

Bureau A specifically mentioned the work of architectural organisation the OSA Group, which built Constructivist-style buildings across the region from 1925 to 1930, as a point of reference.

Created to scale, cardboard buildings of Bureau A's city are housed on a circular structure made of welded steel, which has a clothes rail underneath.

]]>https://www.dezeen.com/2015/08/14/bureau-a-builds-model-soviet-city-inside-lasticot-boutique-geneva/feed/1Mountain hideaway hidden inside a concrete boulder in the Alpshttps://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/18/bureau-a-antoine-mountain-hideaway-concrete-boulder-swiss-alps/
https://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/18/bureau-a-antoine-mountain-hideaway-concrete-boulder-swiss-alps/#commentsThu, 18 Dec 2014 12:28:57 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=614986Swiss studio Bureau A has concealed a wooden cabin inside an artificial rock and transported it to a remote site in the Swiss Alps. Bureau A, a studio led by architects Leopold Banchini and Daniel Zamarbide, designed the mountain shelter to pay tribute to the central character in the novel Derborence by Swiss writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz.

]]>Swiss studio Bureau A has concealed a wooden cabin inside an artificial rock and transported it to a remote site in the Swiss Alps.

Bureau A, a studio led by architects Leopold Banchini and Daniel Zamarbide, designed the mountain shelter to pay tribute to the central character in the novel Derborence by Swiss writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz.

In the story, a shepherd named Antoine becomes trapped amongst rocks after a landslide, and survives there for seven weeks before finding his way home. The structure is named Antoine after him.

"The mountains have the power to call for feelings of fascination and fear at the same time," said the architects. "Switzerland has a strong tradition of observing the Alps, living with them, hiding inside them."

The shelter comprises a simple wooden cabin, encased within a concrete shell with the form of a huge rock. The interior is only revealed by a pair of small windows and a recessed doorway.

Inside, the knotty timber has been left exposed on walls, floors and ceilings. Flaps fold down from the walls to create seating, a table and a bed, so that one person can stay comfortably inside.

"It contains the very basic architectural elements – fireplace, bed, table, stool, window – but demands to the visitor some risk taking, as the rock hangs literally on the rock fall field," they added.

The project was commissioned to host artist residencies for a programme run by the Verbier 3d Foundation. It was built by hand in a mountain village and transported to the site of the back of a lorry.